In the practice of cryogenic air separation for the production of nitrogen product and/or oxygen product, it is at times desired to produce such product or products at an elevated pressure. One very effective way for producing elevated pressure product using cryogenic air separation is to operate the column system used to carry out the cryogenic air separation at an elevated pressure. Unfortunately, such operating practice generally results in lower recovery or yield of such elevated pressure product(s).
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved cryogenic air separation system which can be used to effectively produce one or more products at elevated pressure without significantly compromising the recovery of such product(s).